Friday, 23 November 2012

My apologies to anyone who has been waiting to read the
final instalment of our wonderful trip to the US and the Yellowstone National
Park. I have been frantically busy lately editing for clients, and had to push
my blog to the background for a while. But I sent off my latest edited
manuscript, so now I’m free to finish what I started!

There were only two days of our holiday left, and we had
decided to spend them at the Lake Yellowstone hotel. This is situated right on
the shore of Lake Yellowstone and was originally built in 1891. It underwent a
full restoration in 1990. Because we had booked our trip a little late, we
could not get a room in the hotel itself and would be staying in the annex
adjacent to the main building. However, we had a full day to enjoy before
arriving there, so we packed our things, had a nice breakfast, and said a fond
farewell to Mammoth Hot Springs.

We drove toward Tower Fall and were fortunate enough to have
a closer encounter with an animal we had only glimpsed a few days before. There
was a large cliff right next to the roadside and two days before we had seen a
couple of bighorn sheep right at the top of this cliff, just peeking over the
edge. Today, however, two bighorns plus two cute kids were giving a wonderful
display of agility right close to the road as they skipped over the sheer loose
scree of the cliff. We just had to stop and watch them for a while, even if it
was a bit disappointing that there were no male sheep showing off those
beautiful, huge horns!

Bighorn sheep with
kids.

We went on to see Tower Fall, and ate some juicy apples
overlooking the water. The Falls were spectacular as ever. Then we moved on
toward our chosen picnic site and received another unexpected treat. Our route
took us close to where we had seen the mama black bear with her two cubs right
next to the petrified tree. I would never have imagined we’d get lucky enough
to see that family again, but when we saw the ‘bear jam’ and got out of our
car, there they were! The two cubs had climbed a tree and were sleeping
soundly, draped across a branch. Mama was keeping watch on the ground but was
also grazing, clearly not bothered by the fascinated tourists clicking their
cameras and whirring their camcorders. We used our video camera too but as the
cubs were some way off, Dave had to rest the camera on my head to stop his
hands shaking. I couldn’t stand that still though, and the resulting film makes
me feel queasy when I watch it!

After our picnic, we carried on to Canyon Falls. It must
have been our lucky day for we were going to see a scarce creature, one I
hadn’t dared dream we’d spot. By now we had mastered the art of the sudden car
stop, so when we chanced to look across at a small group of people who were off
the road and training cameras on what I was convinced was a wolf – a WOLF! – we
were safely parked and out of the Jeep in seconds. This was a wooded section of
the Park and there was a narrow clearing perpendicular to the road. The wolf –
it was a wolf and it was white! – was
making its way away from the road down this narrow clearing. It was obviously
nervous as it kept looking over its shoulder to check no one was following it.
Once it reached the end of the clearing, which took only a matter of seconds,
it looked to its left and bounded off that way, as if running to join some
other wolves. Dave and I hadn’t had time to grab our camera, we knew we’d never
get the chance to photograph it before it disappeared, but nevertheless we were
elated. Had anyone asked me at the start of this trip which animal I’d most
like to see, the wolf would have been top of my list. But it was also top of
the list of creatures I least expected to see, and now we had seen one! I
simply couldn’t believe it.

On arriving at our hotel we booked in and dumped our cases
in our annex room. The main hotel was very 1920s and looked pretty comfortable,
but the annex was rather basic. It was the smallest room we’d had so far and
could have done with a lick of paint. Still, we were only there for two nights.
We walked over to the main hotel and had a drink in the lovely lounge
overlooking the lake. There was a lady pianist playing some period songs, and
we sang along for a while. Then we took a walk by the lake and admired the
restored yellow tour buses.

Lake Yellowstone Hotel
tour bus.

After that we decided to have a drive before supper. We only
saw the West Thumb end of the lake when we were here the week before, so now we
explored more to the north. We parked and walked over the attractive Fishing
Bridge, having a good giggle at the sign that said ‘No Fishing’. We returned
early to the hotel because our all too short sighting of the white wolf had
made us eager for more. We knew the Lamar Valley was the place to spot them, so
after a very nice supper we drove out that way and waited until evening, with
our binoculars trained. It was a cool clear night and beautiful, but
unfortunately the mosquitoes chewed us to bits. Defeated, we returned to the
hotel.

The next day – our last in the Park – we made the most of
the glorious hot weather. We drove to Old Faithful and shot the video I wanted.
We played the tourist and bought T shirts and posters. At Midway Geyser Basin
we marvelled at the fabulous colors of the Grand Prismatic Spring. Back at the
hotel, our final supper was delicious salmon and because we asked so nicely,
our waitress made us a special plate of different cheeses for dessert. Then we
drove out for our last evening wildlife watch, not expecting to see anything to
add to our list. The wolves kept themselves hidden, but we did see two muskrats.
I even educated some Chinese visitors who were convinced the muskrat was a
beaver. They were disappointed, so maybe I shouldn’t have told them!

Incredible Colors of the Grand
Prismatic Spring.

The mosquitoes hadn’t gone away and we had a long drive back
to Salt Lake City the next day, so we returned to the hotel by 9.30 pm. It had
been such a wonderful holiday, one I will never forget. One day we will return
to the US, and explore more of this fascinating country and its wildlife.

Normally I am quite content to return home after a trip
away, and I was certainly missing Milly and Milo, my two rescue dogs, but I did
feel quite sad when we got into the Jeep the next morning for our final drive
back to Salt Lake. It was a long but fabulous drive, and I even saw a couple of
hummingbirds when we stopped at a roadside pull-out. We arrived back at the
Garden Hilton Hotel and it almost felt like coming home after the experience of
Rhemalda Publishing’s Got Stories conference and all the lovely people we met
there. I’m hoping we can attend next year’s conference, wherever it may be, and
meet even more of my fellow Rhemalda authors.